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editor
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 Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:23 pm Post subject: |
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The Vancouver Sun
Tired Real Estate Booster
Bus accidents jump 43%
Running red lights, speeding, talking on cellphones,
hogging the road -- some of the police complaints about
bus drivers
By Gerry Bellett
Oct. 5/07
| Quote: | All 3,000 Coast Mountain Bus Co. drivers have been ordered to take refresher driving courses following a deluge of complaints from the public and Vancouver police and a huge increase in accidents. The number of preventable accidents involving Coast Mountain buses has jumped by 43 per cent in the past four years, according to documents obtained from Coast Mountain under freedom of information legislation.
Other documents showed the major complaints from the public and police include:
- Drivers deliberately running yellow and red lights and using the "honk-and-run" tactic -- drivers leaning on their horns to clear out intersections when they run yellow or red lights.
- Drivers bullying other road users by cutting them off or forcing them out of their lane using the "Thanks for the brake. Please Yield: It's the law" sign on the rear of the bus as justification.
- Drivers hogging the road, preventing other motorists from passing.
- Speeding buses.
- Drivers talking on cellphones or listening to Walkmans or MP3 players while at the wheel.
A preventable accident is described by Coast Mountain as "a contact between a motor vehicle and anything, where the driver of the vehicle did not take reasonable action to avoid a collision." |
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editor
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| Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:30 am Post subject: |
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cbc.ca/bc
RCMP pose with women and handcuffs at UBC, photos show
Oct. 12/07
| Quote: | RCMP are investigating after two campus officers were caught on film playfully posing with young women and lending them handcuffs while on duty, a police spokesman confirmed Thursday night.
Photos obtained by CBC News show the two officers from the University of British Columbia detachment posing with a group of women around the officers' squad car on July 1. Davor Kovac, a fourth-year business student at UBC, said he witnessed the two RCMP officers pulling up to a McDonald's on campus near a bus stop and questioning the women about open alcohol.
... "I said, just loud enough so they can hear me, 'This is the most unprofessional thing I have even seen,'" Kovac claimed. The two RCMP officers continued to take photos for 10 minutes and only stopped long enough to ask Kovac to pour out his drink, he said. "So I poured it out and then he went right back to posing with the girls," Kovac said. |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:38 am Post subject: |
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Airport security - B.C. 'BILLY-syle:
How soon before Canada is recognized as the Third World nation we are?
| Quote: | cbc.ca/bc
Witness blames RCMP, Vancouver airport for death of Tasered man
Oct. 19/07
| Quote: | A man who witnessed a Taser incident at Vancouver International Airport last Sunday said security at the facility and RCMP are to blame for the death of a distraught man in the terminal who didn't understand English. Lorne Meltzer, a corporate valet, told CBC News Thursday he was at the airport picking up a client just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday and found himself facing Robert Dziekanski. He said he tried to calm an agitated Dziekanski, 40, in the public arrivals area and unwittingly let the Polish immigrant back into the secure international arrivals area, using his pass to open the one-way doors.
Meltzer has a security pass to the secure international arrivals area, as a personal assistant to a Vancouver businessman who often has clients fly into town.
"I think the responsible parties are the Vancouver Airport and the RCMP for not having other negotiating tactics once he's at the heightened state," said Meltzer, who was the person who called in RCMP. He said he clearly warned them the man didn't speak English. Meltzer claimed the officers gave Dziekanski two commands in English and within seconds Tasered him after he held a stapler in an apparently threatening manner. "He [Dziekanski] raised the stapler in the air and they [RCMP] said, 'Put your hands on the desk,' in English," Meltzer said. Meltzer said the RCMP were too hasty to use the Taser and he refutes the police claim that the area was too crowded to use pepper spray, because "it was empty."
Dziekanski was Tasered by RCMP and later died. Police and a witness conflict in the number of jolts the man is alleged to have received.
RCMP insist that the man was zapped two times, but Sima Ashrafinia, who was at the airport and recorded the incident on her cellphone, told CBC News on Monday that RCMP officers stunned Dziekanski four times. An autopsy by the B.C. Coroner's Service on Tuesday did not find the cause of death, citing no trauma or disease was found. Officials are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests and microscopic examinations. |
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Here's the kicker: In the video also posted at the site, Meltzer, a frequent airport visitor, says that after 10:45 p.m., there is no airport security!
Were translation services in Polish available at the time of the incident?
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editor
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:40 am Post subject: |
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Containing sexual abuse in the schools - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Vancouver School Board decides not to release Quest report
Private consultant says board's current policies are good,
but need further improvement
Oct. 24/07
| Quote: | The Vancouver School District has decided not to release a private consultant's report on the controversial Quest outdoor education program. The school board commissioned Victoria lawyer Don Avison to write a report on current policies and practices after criminal charges were laid against former teacher Tom Ellison ... found guilty in December, 2006 on five sexual misconduct charges stemming from incidents involving female students in the Quest program ... in the late '70s and early '80s while he ran the Quest outdoor education program. He was acquitted on nine other charges.
In a statement released Wednesday morning, the board says that under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act it can only make public the recommendations contained in the report. The board released a summary of those recommendations that refers only to the board's current policies, and not policies in place when the Quest program was active.
Laura Anderson, a former Quest student, and one of Tom Ellison's accusers, believes the board may be trying to dodge responsibility for what happened 25 and 30 years ago. She told CBC Wednesday morning she is frustrated the board won't publicly discuss why the Quest program was allowed to continue for so many years.
... Avison found the board's current policies are good overall but he recommends the board make more explicit reference to appropriate gender supervision for activities that involve overnight travel ... he recommends discipline record checks for all new hires, in addition to the criminal record checks already required, and that all employees be trained to understand the board's policies on how to handle student allegations of abuse. (emphasis added) |
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... In other words, protecting VSB STAFF - not students.
Here's the summary:
| Quote: | Summary of Recommendations
Mr. Avison's recommendations may be summarized as follows:
1. Policy and Protocols
- Use the Trek Program policy document as a model for all field study, outdoor and alternative education programs.
- Incorporate the Inter-Agency Protocol and Procedures for Investigating Alleged Physical and/or Sexual Abuse of Students by VSB Employees into the Board's Policy on Reporting Child Abuse.
- Ensure the Policy on Supervision of Students makes more explicit reference to appropriate gender supervision for activities that involve overnight travel.
- Ensure protocols are in place for appropriate and timely reporting to the College of Teachers.
- Implement protocols requiring discipline record checks for prospective employees, in addition to the mandatory criminal record checks which are already undertaken.
2. Training
- Provide all employees, including prospective administrators, with in-service training on the Inter-Agency Protocol and Procedures for Investigating Alleged Physical and/or Sexual Abuse of Students by VSB Employees and other Child Protection Initiatives.
3. Code of Conduct
- Implement a "VSB specific" Code of Conduct for all employees and volunteers.
4. Record Keeping
- Ensure there is consistent documentation of allegations and investigations of abuse.
- Update procedures for record keeping, including retention of personnel records. |
Note that parents are NOT among the various classes of persons invited to consult on these policies. Interestingly, STUDENTS (the potential victims, most of whom of are unable to vote or even drive) will be cavassed via their 'school representatives,' whatever that means:
| Quote: | Dialogue with Students
In addition to addressing Mr. Avison's recommendations, the Board is taking other initiatives to further ensure all students enrolled in our schools feel informed and supported in reporting concerns of abuse. To this end, the Superintendent will be holding a series of dialogues with student representatives to discuss current policy and procedures with respect to abuse allegations. Through these dialogues, students will have opportunity to provide their perspectives on policies and procedures, and specifically, on reporting concerns of abuse. By the end of February, 2008, the Superintendent will be reporting to the Board with recommendations drawn from these dialogues. |
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editor
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| Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:18 am Post subject: |
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The Good Samaritan - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Vancouver woman left helpless on bus after stroke
Oct. 25/07
| Quote: | A Vancouver woman says she was left unattended for two hours in the front seat of a bus after she suffered a stroke during a ride in June. "I felt very scared … I just prayed and hoped someone would help me," said Nadine Laughlin, who is now partially paralyzed. Her family is seeking "some sort of an explanation and an apology," said her husband, Mark Laughlin.
In an interview with CBC News on Thursday, the woman said that at about 11 a.m. on June 22, she boarded a No. 22 bus, which runs from MacDonald Street to Knight Street. She was sitting in the front left seat behind the driver, with a blind separating the two. Laughlin said she felt something was wrong with her body and then the stroke came over her. "I was trying to get the driver's attention or some other person on the bus who would help me," she said. "There were people on the bus and they didn't help me."
... Eventually, the bus reached the end of the route on Knight Street and Marine Drive, where the driver was supposed to check the bus. Laughlin said she was "really angry at the bus driver" but was not certain if the driver saw her before he continued on his return route.
During the return ride Laughlin said she began to vomit but still no one helped her. It was only after she "threw herself on the floor" that an ambulance was called. (emphasis added)
... The company (Coast Mountain) said drivers are supposed to check for passengers at the end of the line and it will further investigate what happened. |
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| Quote: | Managing Risk Factors and Early Intervention Can Lessen Stroke Impact
University of Iowa Health Science Relations and
Harold Adams, Professor of Neurology
First Published: 2004
Last Reviewed: November 2004
Peer Review Status: Internally Peer Reviewed
| Quote: | When it comes to effective stroke care, time is truly of the essence, says Harold Adams, MD, director of the Stroke Clinic at UI Hospitals and Clinics and professor of neurology in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
"The longer without intervention the stroke goes, the more brain injury there is and the greater likelihood of severe residuals and an unhappy outcome," Adams says. "Time-to-treatment is critical. Don't wait for the symptoms to go away, call 911 and get to the hospital." (emphasis added)
... Early treatment starts with someone recognizing the stroke symptoms and getting the person having a stroke to the emergency room as quickly as possible. However, stroke affects the brain and often the person having the stroke is not thinking well and does not recognize that there is a problem. Ensuring that a person having a stroke receives the rapid medical intervention that might minimize the damage often falls to people around that individual--family or co-workers--who need to understand what is going on and get the individual to the emergency room.
Symptoms
The usual symptoms of strokes include:
Sudden onset of some sort of neurological problem
Transient loss of vision in one eye
An episode where part of the body becomes numb, heavy or clumsy
Paralysis or sagging of one side of the face
Slurred speech or speech that doesnt make sense
Weakness and numbness is usually confined to one side of the body
In the first few hours following a stroke, the goal is to treat the stroke such that the patient largely recovers, thus lowering the risk of complications, eliminating the need for rehabilitation and providing an opportunity to start treatments that help lower the risk of recurrent stroke.
About 80 percent of strokes are associated with a blood clot blocking an artery and depriving part of the brain of an adequate blood supply. This type of stroke is called ischemic stroke or infarction.
For patients who have an acute ischemic stroke, the opportunity to limit the neurological damage is very time sensitive. In particular, if a clot-busting drug, which has been available for about eight years, can be given to the patient within three hours of the stroke onset this can limit the extent of brain damage and can lead to good recovery. (emphasis added)
Although a devastating ischemic stroke can happen without warning, some patients will have a warning sign in the form of a transient ischemic attack (TIA). The difference between a TIA, sometimes known as a mini-stroke, and a full-blown stroke is that TIAs generally resolve themselves without causing substantial or permanent brain damage. However, a TIA is a warning of an impending stroke and intervention needs to be moved forward rapidly.
Interventions
Interventions that can help to prevent ischemic stroke in people who have warning signs include blood-thinning medications such as aspirin and warfarin and surgical procedures like carotid endarterectomy (removing a narrow portion of the artery) and angioplasty (stenting). |
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editor
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:47 pm Post subject: |
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Ignore obvious warnings, don't ask, don't tell, just sign here:
Buying a condo - B.C. 'BILLY-style
| Quote: | Burnaby News Leader
Condo owners asked to pay up
By Michael McQuillan
Nov. 8/07
| Quote: | The developer of the San Marino condominium building is telling owners they’ll have to pay a hefty monthly strata fee or walk away from their units. Just two weeks before the opening of the eight-storey San Marino building in Sapperton, DCP Developments (Sapperton) Ltd. added an estimated $200 to $350 strata fee to each condo. The owners were told to agree to the fees or have their purchase agreements cancelled.
The increased fees were needed to make the project a reality, says the developer. Increased construction costs and materials, extra regulatory fees and poor weather have combined to inflate the cost of the building, said Paul John, a director with DCP Developments. In hindsight, he said, the company should not have pre-sold the condos. “We never thought we couldn’t deliver at the price we sold them at.” (emphasis added)
Many of the owners in the 106-unit building made down payments on the condos two years ago as part of the pre-sale.
Condo owner Lorrie Williams said she didn’t read the purchase agreement, which allows the developer to add the strata fee. In hindsight, the New Westminster councillor says she should have vetted the agreement through her lawyer. (emphasis added)
“I’m dismayed that a contract doesn’t seem to be a contract anymore,” she said. “You have to read the fine print.” Williams has agreed to pay the extra strata fees, which is a leasing fee covering building infrastructure such as mailboxes, the elevator and fixtures. The leasee is the developer. Normally such infrastructure is a fixed cost and is part of the price for each condo.
“If it wasn’t for my mom, I would walk away from this,” said Williams, who bought the unit so she could have her aging mother close to her home. Williams realizes the developer needs more money to pay for escalating construction costs. “But this took us all by surprise. We should have known about this before—a year ago.”
She considers herself lucky because she can afford the added costs. But Williams worries about those who can barely afford to pay their condo mortgages.
“For those having to scrape together the money to pay for the mortgage, this will probably put them over the edge. They’ll have to walk away.”
Those purchasing units will have difficulties selling them because of the high strata fee, said New Westminster MLA Chuck Puchmayr. Along with NDP housing critic Diane Thorne, Puchmayr plans to speak about the San Marino situation in the Legislature, recommending changes to protect consumers. “Developers would have to be bonded to make sure they can deliver at the cost they promised. There’s no way consumers should have to take all of the risk,” Puchmayr said.
San Marino owners choosing to opt out of the purchase agreement will be refunded their 10 per cent deposit, plus two years of bank interest.
The San Marino, at 411 East Columbia Street, went on sale two years ago. It is expected to be granted an occupancy permit this week. The developer said there is a positive side to the San Marino opening, even though owners are having to pay the extra fees. “The owners have already made a lot of money—$150,000 to $200,000,” said John referring to the most recent assessed values. |
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Here is the San Marino condominium listed among Projects on the Go Oct. 1/07:
| Quote: | Project Description:
102 residential units- 8 storeys
fronting Columbia Street East and 4
storeys at the rear, 4,236 sq ft. at
grade commercial fronting Columbia
Street East; Doug Massie, Doug
Massie Architect (listed as Douglas L. Massie,
603 - 1200 W. 73rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC
Tel:(604) 264-1496
Profile:
Website:
Description:
at FindBCWood.com); DCP
Developments (Sapperton) Ltd.
Project address:
411 Columbia Street
East (formerly 309/311
Knox Street & 411/415
Columbia Street East) -
The San Marino
Estimated project cost: $11,000,000 |
Link to this entry
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| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:15 am Post subject: |
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Advocacy B.C. 'BILLY-style:
Surrey 'BILLIES fight for the right to get naked when they swim
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Skinny-dippers win right to bare all at B.C. wave pool
Nov. 9/07
| Quote: | A group of nudists in Surrey is celebrating a court ruling that the city cannot prevent them from swimming naked at a local wave pool. The ruling released Thursday by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Williamson says the city was being unreasonable with Skinnydipper Services, a company that organizes nude swims and other services and events.
Skinnydipper Services began renting the Newton wave pool in 2003 to hold private nude swims on Sunday nights, with the windows at the indoor pool papered over. But a local newspaper story about the swims caught the attention of some residents, who complained to City Hall, saying it was inappropriate for the nudists to use a public pool. The City of Surrey cancelled the rentals, and the nudists went to court in May.
The city argued that health regulations require people to wear clean bathing attire in the pool. But Williamson concluded that rule doesn't necessarily mean people can't go into the pool naked. He said the field of determining proper attire has been covered by Parliament, and so it's not up to the city to decide how private groups should dress — or not dress — for their private swims. |
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editor
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| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:55 am Post subject: |
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The Vancouver Sun
Tired Daily Real Estate Flier
Teachers get away with phone sex, tips to
B.C. test questions
By Janet Steffenhagen
Nov. 13/07
| Quote: | A teacher who admitted to professional misconduct for tipping 10 students to questions and answers on the Social Studies 11 provincial exam last year will not face discipline from the body that regulates the teaching profession. Nor will a teacher who initiated phone sex with a student, or a teacher who reached into a girl's back pocket as she leaned over near his desk, called a boy sexy and held a girl's hand, making her uncomfortable. Those decisions not to discipline were among seven disciplinary decisions from the B.C. College of Teachers.
| Quote: | The decisions were posted on the college website this month. They've prompted an outcry from critics who say the college's refusal to discipline is circumventing a new law requiring it to create a public registry identifying all disciplined teachers.
"They're not disciplining them and therefore they don't have to publish their names on the registry," said Cathy Abraham, who was on the college's governing council in 2003-04 by government appointment. Carl Ratsoy, a teacher who served on council as an elected member and later as a government appointee until 2004, said the decisions amount to "a backroom deal -- a handshake. The discipline process has degenerated into a non-discipline process." (emphasis added)
However, three of the seven decisions did include discipline:
- Michael Richard Hernandez received a reprimand and promised to quit teaching after an assault conviction for having an inappropriate relationship with an 11-year-old, which included placing candies on her face and removing them with his mouth.
- Howard Wallace Lee agreed to cancellation of his teaching certificate after he had an inappropriate relationship with an international student that included French-kissing on two occasions.
- Chi Yung Luu was barred from holding a teaching certificate for an indeterminate period after he was convicted in the U.S. of criminal voyeurism for videotaping boys in a change room at a sports facility. Luu served seven months in jail on that charge. He was later handed a 12-month conditional sentence for possession of child pornography after a search of his home in Canada. The case of Luu, who was teaching in North Delta at the time, was widely publicized.
The college does not identify disciplined teachers' schools or school districts. A seventh decision, involving an unnamed teacher, was so vaguely worded it was impossible to know why the teacher was investigated, except that it had to do with offending students' ethnic sensitivities. In all seven cases, the teachers had previously been disciplined by their school districts, but those decisions are not made public. (emphasis added)
Districts are required to report all discipline to the college so that it can regulate the profession in a way that maintains public trust. On its website, the college says it strives to maintain public confidence "through transparent processes and accountable decision-making." But Abraham and Ratsoy say there is no transparency and no accountability. "It's not quite a Star Chamber, but it's headed down that path," Ratsoy said in an interview. College spokesman Richard Walker said the criticism comes from people who don't have full details about any of the cases. "It's very dangerous to leap to assumptions based on narrow facts," he added.
While declining to comment on individual cases, Walker said the three-person committee that adjudicates almost every case that lands before the college makes decisions in the best interests of students. The members this year are two retired teacher-union leaders, Jim Gill and John Grain, and lawyer Tim Dunford, who represents parents. That committee handles most discipline through "consent resolution agreements." If those agreements include a reprimand, a suspension or a certificate cancellation, they are considered discipline. Of 29 agreements signed in recent years, 18 did not include discipline. The college does not release details of those agreements and they are not obtainable through freedom-of-information legislation. In some cases, the agreement specifies what details may be made public.
Although the college did not impose discipline in the phone-sex case, it did identify Mark Edward Dyck as the teacher who telephoned a student to talk about sexual intercourse and his sexual fantasies. Dyck admitted to professional misconduct and promised not to teach for two years.
Walker denied suggestions the college is trying to keep teachers' names off the discipline registry, comparing that concern to a conspiracy theory. "There are some people who believe the worst, no matter what," he added.
Education Minister Shirley Bond has said she expects the discipline registry to be in place within a year. The college has asked her to change the law so that names would be published only for teachers who caused physical, sexual or emotional harm to a student. (emphasis added) |
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| Quote: | | Isn't it time for a program of anonymous post-secondary-style course/instructor evaluations like this one? |
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| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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Taking care of the kids - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Struggling Yet Earnest Public News Source
B.C.'s child poverty rate worst in Canada: report
Fourth year in a row B.C ranked last by report
Nov. 26/07
| Quote: | A new report says B.C. had the highest child-poverty rate in the country for 2005, based on the latest available income numbers from Statistics Canada.
According to the report written by the B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, one out of every five children lives in poverty. It said almost 21 per cent of children live below the poverty line. The national average was just under 17 per cent. It's the fourth year in a row B.C ranked last in the report. (emphasis added)
Coalition chairperson Michael Goldberg said the province needs to come up with "a child poverty reduction plan, which has very specific targets, and timelines. "That's been done in Newfoundland. Quebec has had one for a number of years. They have an anti-poverty act they have to follow and their figures are way down compared to most other provinces," said Goldberg on Sunday. Goldberg said it's shameful that British Columbia has so many poor children despite *doing so well economically. "Maybe that's what B.C. needs to get very serious about, both the premier and the leader of the opposition," said Goldberg.
Coalition spokesperson Adrienne Montani said Sunday one of many disturbing statistics in the report is that British Columbia has the worst rate of child poverty among families where at least one parent is working full-time, all year. "It says to me that we have a lot of families that don't make enough money to raise their kids in an inclusive fashion in society," said Montani. "They're not able to access things that other kids are able to access. It means their parents are working for very low wages. It probably means there's a lot of family stress," she said.
With so many young families with parents working full-time and still unable to keep up with the cost of living in this province, Montani said the provincial government should raise the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour. |
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| Quote: | | *Note: Cognitive dissonance - no sense makes it. For an economy that's trumpeted by corporate media as 'hot, hot, HOT and getting EVEN HOTTER!' (because gov't tells them so at govt-led scrums no self-respecting journalist would bother attending), where, oh, where are the highly-paid service jobs to indicate that B.C. is doing something - ANYTHING! - to add value to our unrenewable raw resources before shipping them to market? Did we miss something? Are there jobs in B.C. NOT limited to our new failed housing economy? Qualified construction hardhats - those few who have not been implicated in B.C.'s shameful and still unresolved legacy of LEAKY CONDOS - after all can only climb so high up the tax brackets - and only then if they remain injury free. |
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Children's advocate blasts government over slow progress
Nov. 27/07
| Quote: | B.C.'s representative for children and youth has delivered a stinging rebuke to the ministry responsible for child protection. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Monday she's concerned by the lack of action by the ministry to implement the recommendations of a sweeping report issued in April, 2006 on the province's child welfare system.
Turpel-Lafond told a legislative committee the Ministry for Children and Family Development has fully implemented only 15 of the 62 recommendations in former judge Ted Hughes's sweeping report last year and has made little or no progress implementing some of the key recommendations.
Speaking to reporters later, Turpel-Lafond blasted the ministry's upper management for what she called a lack of leadership. "I requested that there be clarification about the role of this transformation plan vis-a-vis Hughes, and I received the same plan back with some numbers in columns, which appear to me to be an insincere effort to place attention on the implementation of the Hughes review," said Turpel-Lafond in Victoria. Minister for Children and Family Development Tom Christensen said Monday he was surprised by the tone and theme of Turpel-Lafond's remarks, because the children's representative has never complained to him about a lack of co-operation. The government remains committed to the Hughes report, he said.
In April, 2006, then children and family development minister Stan Hagen said the government planned to implement all 62 recommendations made by Hughes in his report on the province's child protection system. In the 172-page report, Hughes said the system's ability to function properly has been "buffeted by an unmanageable degree of change," noting there have been nine ministers, eight deputy ministers and seven directors of child protection in the past decade. Hughes also took issue with four years of **deep departmental budget cuts, which "took the knife too far." (emphasis added) |
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| Quote: | | **Note: Cuts, shmuts! Get this - Finance Minister Carole Taylor says the B.C. economy is strong and the budget surplus is growing ... Taylor released her latest quarterly report in Victoria on Thursday, showing government revenues are higher than projected. The surplus is now pegged at $2.15 billion for the current fiscal year, an increase of nearly a billion since her last quarterly report in September when it was forecast at $1.2 billion. Taylor says the improvement is the result of higher tax revenues and a one-time infusion of federal dollars for building projects. (From B.C. budget surplus nearly doubles posted at cbc.ca Nov. 30/06 - just one year ago). Have these officials no eyes to see? No ears to hear? No shame? |
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editor
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| Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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Protecting the environment - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
Beyond the Outer Shores
The Untold Story of Ed Ricketts, the
pioneering ecologist who inspired John
Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell
Hardcover
By non-'Billy Frostback Eric Enno Tamm
| Quote: | Having depleted the ocean, we are now trying to domesticate it by "farming" fish. The U.S. government is even proposing new legislation to privatize the ocean within the two-hundred-mile Exclusive Economic Zone by promoting fish farnming in much the same way that pioneers settled the West. In the words of one newspaper reporter, who obtained a draft of the proposed legislation, "Look out at the boundless ocean, and envision a new Iowa - homesteaded by fish farm colonies... with row upon row of undersea cages roiling with swimming livestock."
Today, the outer shores of the North Pacific represent a tragic microcosm of the world at large. In British Columbia, pristine inlets are being turned into the aquatic equivalent of industrial feedlots with thousands of fish crammed into tiny floating pens. The fish are particularly susceptible to disease and sea lice infestation, are fed pellets and dyes to color their flesh, and contain a level of toxic PCBs seven times higher than in wild salmon. Production from this type of industrial salmon farming soared from 15,500 tonnes in 1990 to 89,000 tonnes in 2002, while wild salmon catches plummeted.
What remains of the wild fisheries, including groundfish, black cod and halibut, among others, are being privatized. The fish in the ocean are being divvied up into individual quotas owned by corporations and so-called "arm chair" fishermen who trade and lease their quotas for profit. Tenant fishermen, not unlike the tenant farmers depicted in The Grapes of Wrath, often pay usurious "rents" equivalent to 70 percent of the revenue from their catches to the quota owners. Poorer rural and aboriginal fishermen have been pushed off the sea, as quota holdings are consolidated in the hands of a rich few. Of the 1,006 quota licences in B.C., for example, only thirteen are owned by people living on the outer shores of Vancouver Island.
A billionaire businessman, Jimmy Pattison, now owns more fishing licences than all these communities combined .
... Are we slaves to a great industrial machine, or "monster" as Steinbeck called it, or are we a species living in mutual dependence with our natural environment? It seems we have failed to heed the one biological truth so evident in the various writings of Ricketts, Steinbeck and Campbell: humans, like other animals, live in communities. Our traditional knowledge, connection to place, dependence on clean air and water, and intergenerational bonds are part of a lifecycle that has allowed us to thrive in nature and persevere despite history's travails. Destroy this organic entity or try to replace it with the harsh mathematics of a corporate ledger or sever a community's connection to the land and sea, and you'll ultimately destroy what makes us human. We will become the brutal machines we have created. (From Epilogue, pgs-. 313-314)) |
Stain Upon the Sea
West Coast Salmon Farming
Paperback
By S. Hume
Foreward by David Suzuki
EurekAlert!
Press Release
Fish farms drive wild salmon populations toward extinction
Experts raise serious concerns about the expansion of industrial fish farming
Contact: Matt Wright
Dec. 13/07
| Quote: | A study appearing in the Dec. 14th issue of the journal Science shows, for the first time, that parasitic sea lice infestations caused by salmon farms are driving nearby populations of wild salmon toward extinction. The results show that the affected pink salmon populations have been rapidly declining for four years.The scientists expect a 99% collapse in another four years, or two salmon generations, if the infestations continue. (see summary and links below)
“The impact is so severe that the viability of the wild salmon populations is threatened,” says lead author Martin Krkosek, a fisheries ecologist from the University of Alberta. Krkosek and his co-authors calculate that sea lice have killed more than 80% of the annual pink salmon returns to British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago. “If nothing changes, we are going to lose these fish.”
Previous peer-reviewed papers by Krkosek and others showed that sea lice from fish farms can infect and kill juvenile wild salmon. This, however, is the first study to examine the population-level effects on the wild salmon stocks.
“It shows there is a real danger to wild populations from the impact of farms,” says Ray Hilborn, a fisheries biologist from the University of Washington who was not involved in the study. “The data for individual populations are highly variable. But there is so much of it, it is pretty persuasive that salmon populations affected by farms are rapidly declining.” According to experts, the study also raises serious concerns about large-scale proposals for net pen aquaculture of other species and the potential for pathogen transfer to wild populations.
“This paper is really about a lot more than salmon,” says Hilborn. “It is about the impacts of net pen aquaculture on wild fish. This is the first study where we can evaluate these interactions and it certainly raises serious concerns about proposed aquaculture for other species such as cod, halibut and sablefish.”
The data are from the Broughton Archipelago, a group of islands and channels about 260 miles northwest of Vancouver that is environmentally, culturally, and economically dependent on wild salmon. To pinpoint the effect of salmon farms, the study used a large dataset collected by the Canadian federal government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Fisheries and Ocean Canada) that estimates how many adult salmon return from the ocean to British Columbia’s rivers each year. Extending back to 1970, the data covers 14 populations of pink salmon (Onchorhynchus gorbuscha) that have been exposed to salmon farms, and 128 populations that have not.
Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) are naturally occurring parasites of wild salmon that latch onto the fishes’ skin in the open ocean. The lice are transmitted by a tiny free-swimming larval stage. Open-net salmon farms are a haven for these parasites, which feed on the fishes’ skin and muscle tissue. Adult salmon can survive a small number of lice, but juveniles headed from the river to the sea are very small, thin-skinned, and vulnerable. In the Broughton Archipelago, the juvenile salmon must run an 80-kilometer gauntlet of fish farms before they reach the open ocean.
“Salmon farming breaks a natural law,” says co-author Alexandra Morton, director of the Salmon Coast Field Station, located in the Broughton. “In the natural system, the youngest salmon are not exposed to sea lice because the adult salmon that carry the parasite are offshore. But fish farms cause a deadly collision between the vulnerable young salmon and sea lice. They are not equipped to survive this, and they don’t.”
Salmon bring nutrients from the open ocean back to the coastal ecosystem. Killer whales, bears, wolves, birds, and even trees depend on pink salmon. “If you lose wild salmon there’s a lot you are going to lose with them – including other industries such as fishing and tourism,” says Krkosek.
“An important finding of this paper is that the impact of the sea lice is so large that it exceeds that of the commercial fishery that used to exist here,” says Jennifer Ford, a co-author and fisheries scientist. “Since the infestations began, the fishery has been closed and the salmon stocks have continued declining.” (emphasis added)
“In the Broughton there are just too many farmed fish in the water. If there were only one salmon farm this problem probably wouldn’t exist,” Krkosek says.
“Over the years the number of farmed fish has increased,” says Morton. “There used to be only a few farms, each holding about 125,000 fish. But now we have over 20 farms, some holding 1.3 million fish. The farmed fish are providing a habitat for lice that wasn’t there before.”
The researchers observed that when farms on a primary migration route were temporarily shut down, or fallowed, sea lice numbers dropped and salmon populations increased. “Even though they have complicated migration patterns they all have one thing in common – overall, the populations that are declining are the ones that are going past the farms,” says Mark Lewis, a mathematical ecologist at the University of Alberta.
“There are two solutions that may work – closed containment, and moving farms away from rivers,” says Lewis. Closed containment means moving the salmon to pens that are completely sealed off from the surrounding environment in contrast to the open-net pens currently in use. In a May 16, 2007 provincial government report, the B.C. Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture recommended a move towards closed containment within 5 years.
“If industry says it’s too expensive to move the fish farms or contain them, they are actually saying the natural system must continue to pay the price,” says Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre, who was not involved with the study. “They are, as economists would say, externalizing the costs of fish farming on the wild salmon and the public.”
Morton, who has been studying the impacts of aquaculture for 20 years, says that, “Wild salmon are enormously important to the ecosystem, economies, and culture. Now it is clear they are disappearing in place of an industry. People need to know this and make a decision what they want: industry-produced salmon or wild salmon.” |
| Quote: | Science:
14 December 2007
Vol. 318. no. 5857, p. 1711
DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5857.1711
| Quote: | Rather than benefiting wild fish, industrial aquaculture may contribute to declines in ocean fisheries and ecosystems. Farm salmon are commonly infected with salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis), which are native ectoparasitic copepods. We show that recurrent louse infestations of wild juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), all associated with salmon farms, have depressed wild pink salmon populations and placed them on a trajectory toward rapid local extinction. The louse-induced mortality of pink salmon is commonly over 80% and exceeds previous fishing mortality. If outbreaks continue, then local extinction is certain, and a 99% collapse in pink salmon population abundance is expected in four salmon generations. These results suggest that salmon farms can cause parasite outbreaks that erode the capacity of a coastal ecosystem to support wild salmon populations.
1 Centre for Mathematical Biology, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
3 Biology Department, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
4 Salmon Coast Field Station, Simoom Sound, BC, Canada.
* Deceased.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mkrkosek@ualberta.ca |
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Rewarding environmental advocates - B.C. 'BILLY- style:
British Columbia Magazine
Magazine Subscription
Wilderness warrior Betty Krawczyk
Why British Columbia's feistiest great-
grandmother is willing to go to jail
for nature.
By Brian Payton
Spring, 2007
| Quote: | Betty Krawczyk believes that citizens are obliged to speak up when faced with injustice. The 78-year-old grandmother has scolded government, inudstry, and even fellow conservationists in defence of British Columbia's wilderness. Her outspoken manner inspires some, goads others - and has cost her almost two years in cumulative prison terms.
Krawczyk's remarkable journey has taken her from an impoverished childhood in southern Louisiana to the front lines of B.C.'s environmental movement. While raising her eight children, she found time to pen more than 200 fiction stories in the true-confessions genre ("I was his his love slave") for popular women's magazines - before taking up the cause of the Women's Movement in the late 1960s. During the Vietnam War, she emigrated to Canada after her first son joined the airforce and her second was about to be drafted.
Forty years, four marriages and divorces, eight grandchildren later, the Vanocuver resident is probably best known for her role in the Clayoquot Sound protests of 1993.
On a sunny afternoon, Krawczyk sat down beside an arbutus tree to reflect on her life in B.C.'s environmental movement. Her perch afforded a view of West Vancouver's Eagleridge Bluffs high above Horseshoe Bay, where she and other protesters spent six weeks on a blockade last summer to protest a highway expansion that has since proceeded through the area. ...
Q. What defines a successful campaign?
A. Clayoquot was successful in that is now a biosphere reserve. But it is still threatened, and I may have to go back there. For the moment, it seems all right. The Elaho was a success. It is now protected. The Walbran was not a success. The courts protected the logging companies. ...
Q. Were you ever frightened in your work as an activist?
A. That's a hard one. I guess I'm not frightened. I just take one day at a time.
My biggest worry is for the safety of the people out on isolated blockades. We were in the Walbran for over three weeks. It was very isolated and there had been some bad violence. Young protesters were attacked and it has not been brought to court. I keep in touch with the press and the RCMP; it's the press that keeps violence down. ...
Q. Why can't you work within the system?
A. Primarily, because there is too much money involved.
Corporations buy off the democratic process. They have influence and raw power. So it is very difficult, even in a system like ours, a system that is supposed to be democratic. It's not just our environment that's lost if we don't act decisively - democracy is lost.
So many people think that if they go vote every four years, their duty as a citizen is done. Your duty as a citizen is not done. Your duty as a citizen is to take part in the decisions being made, not to just pick someone else to do it for you...Only we as citizens can make changes. We mustn't depend on government to do it for us. Because they won't. (-- pgs. 52-56) |
Two kinds of justice - depending on the protester:
Ontario injunction barring native protesters:
| Quote: | Yahoo News
Yet another corporate medium but a no-cost one
Blockade of eastern Ont. rail line ends;
protesters warn of further actions
By Allison Jones
April 21/07
| Quote: | DESERONTO, Ont. (CP) - A key organizer of an aboriginal blockade, which paralyzed passenger and freight rail traffic on the busy Toronto-Montreal corridor, is warning that the protest that ended early Saturday is just the beginning in a series of "escalating" actions.
"We've identified targets as part of this campaign, one being the railway, one being provincial highways and one being the town (of Deseronto) itself," said Shawn Brant. "The disruption on the CN line was a first in a series of economic disruptions, the first in a campaign." he said. "The campaign calls for an ever escalating degree." The next target has already been chosen and plans to finalize the next action are in the works, said Brant, who commented Saturday morning at the site of contention in the dispute - a gravel quarry that the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte say is their land.
Though the protesters originally said they would stay at the railway blockade for 48 hours, it ended peacefully after about 30 hours at 6 a.m. Saturday, after a sleepless night of negotiations with provincial police and other officials. Protesters said they chose to end it early over fears of a violent conclusion. A court injunction ordered the protesters and the dilapidated school bus off the tracks with arrests warned as a consequence, but the order was never enforced by police. No arrests have been made at this point, said Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kristine Rae. "We're pleased that it was a peaceful resolution." ...
Condominiums are planned using gravel from the quarry for an area known as the Culbertson Land Tract, which is on a section of land given to the Six Nations in 1793. The Mohawks contend they never relinquished any part of it. (emphasis added) |
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B.C. injunction barring Eagleridge Bluffs protesters:
| Quote: | News 1130
Noisy Commercial Radio
Betty Krawczyk sentencing leads
to courthouse occupation
By Jim Goddard
March 5/07
Betty's lawyer, Cameron Ward told the CBC Early Edition in an interview early in March that the judiciary is wrong to enforce an injunction - a civil remedy intended to keep parties to a dispute in the same position until the dispute is tried - as if the case was in substance a criminal matter.
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Green job creation - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
VLM
Magazine Subscription
The Downtown Eastside cleans up,
for the rest of us
By Carol Liu
April, 2008
| Quote: | ... Since it opened, United We Can has attracted 220 customers, businesses that leave bottles for (Ken) Lyotier and other binners to collect and take back to the depot. Selling the recyclables, the organization generates enough revenue to cover its costs.
A visit to the storefront near Hastings and Abbott in one of the Downtown Eastside's roughest strips forces you to rub shoulders with a horde of binners standing outside, keeping an eye on their run-down shopping carts. Once inside, you are hit by a smell like day-old booze. The screach of glass bottles scratching against each other as they are sorted is sufficiently painful that workers receiving and cashing out the items wear ear protection. Mountains of bagged plastic bottles line the east wall. The grimy glass front door is constantly opening and closing as people come in with bottles and leave with money in their pockets.
United We Can's main goal is to offer "employment opportunities," as Lyotier calls this brisk trade, to people dealing with mental health or addiction issues. ...
Binners such as Derek Holt claim to make $700 to $800 a month. And it's all tax-free. In the past he was able to make $400 to $550 from the Holiday Inn on West Broadway. Now he makes around $375 because "the maids caught onto what kind of money can be made and now keep half." (-- p. 29) |
Green marketing - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
From An ancient spiritual practice - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
The New York Times Magazine
Magazine Subscription
The Green Issue
Ready-to-Wear
By Clay Risen
April 20/08
| Quote: | | ... not every claim to organic provenance is equal. "Greenwashing" is as prevalent in the clothing sector as it is in all sorts of other industries, like the oil business. Accordint to a survey of over 1,018 "green" consumer products by the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, only 1 was completely free of inflated or unverifiable claims. Because apparel purchases are often made on the spur of the moment, buyers may be less likely than usual to research manufacturers' assertions. Last year, The New York Times exposed one trendy fashion label, Lululemon Athletica, which had claimed that one of its lines of yoga gear was made with seaweed. But lab tests showed that the clothing contained none of the minerals that indicaste its presence - findings that Lululemon disputed, although it withdrew the seaweed claim in Canada at the request of authorities there (emphasis added). Green fashion is a great way to connect with eco-conscious consumers, who then drive more conventional manufacturers to follow suit. But if consumers get the idea that green claims are inflated or unbelievable, the entire trend is threatened. That's why a number of eco-fashion marketers are pushing standardized labels for green clothing, the equivalent of existing imprimaturs like Energy Star and Green Seal. Still, let the buyer beware: TerraChoices's survey found that several products carried the labels even when they weren't up to standard. (-- p. 48) |
Hospitals go green - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
| Quote: | cbc.ca
Janitor speaks out about rat problem at B.C. hospital
Vermin attracted by 'green' composting practices
June 3/08
| Quote: | Janitor Brian Britten believes the rat problem at Delta Hospital was caused by composting practices introduced about a year ago. A B.C. janitor is speaking out about an infestation of rats at the Delta Hospital, which he believes was caused by a new "green" program to compost kitchen waste. Brian Britten said he first tried to report his concerns to hospital administrators before and after rats appeared last year, but said he was told by his employer, a private contractor, to keep quiet.
"They didn't appreciate anybody telling them about the potential of rats, and then finally when rats did show up, it was like well, there they are," said Britten. "They are disease carriers … and they bring … the kinds of public health issues that we don't want in our public health system."
Britten has worked in B.C. health-care facilities for 30 years and is now a weekend janitor at Delta Hospital. His employer is the multinational company Sodexho, which has the contracts for cleaning and pest control at the hospital, among other things. In the spring of 2007, Britten said Sodexho housekeeping staff at Delta Hospital were told to start dumping leftover food into bins in the bay area at the back of the facility. Kitchen scraps were being dumped in unsealed bins and left outside the hospital, before being picked up and taken away for composting. He said the waste was left for days before being picked up periodically by a waste management company, which took it to a nearby composting plant.
"(The housekeepers) complained to me. 'Oh Brian,' they said, 'We're gagging. This is like terrible slop. We open the containers and there are flies buzzing in our face,' and I said 'Yeah, I've already told people all I can,'" said Britten.
The composting plan was part of Fraser Health Authority's region-wide initiative to "go green." But Britten said he warned hospital administrators early on that they were asking for trouble.
"It was done quickly without preparation — poorly planned," said Britten, "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you are going to go about this procedure of recycling food waste, that you are going to end up with (pest) problems." (emphasis added)
Monica Cromarty, who is responsible for recycling initiatives in Fraser Health Authority hospitals, said Delta and Burnaby General were the first in the region to implement composting programs, which she said were suggested to her by Smithrite Waste Disposal. The hospitals pay Smithrite to pick up the material and haul it to a composting plant. "Composting needs to go on, because we have to reduce our waste," Cromarty said. "It's been proven that it works. We want to go green. We want to catch up with the world."
... Documents obtained by CBC News show that in February of last year, before the composting program began at Delta Hospital, a routine check by Orkin Pest Control Services found "no sign" of rodent activity there. Then in March, the month the program started, Orkin reported "high (rodent) activity" in the bay area behind the hospital, where compost bins were located. By the fall of last year, Orkin had been called in twice for "emergency service" because staff had reported seeing rats in the kitchen.
... Britten said he complained to hospital officials after seeing rats inside the hospital last September, several months after he first warned administration about a potential problem. He then wrote a letter to the hospital, which read, "It was a misplaced ideal to begin with to have food waste stored in the service bay. I warned hospital administration and the food services manager last winter that it would cause pest management problems." Two weeks after he sent that letter, Britten said he was given a copy of a "note to file," signed by his employer, Sodexho. It said while his concerns were appreciated, he was not to talk directly to hospital administrators again. "Please be advised that hazards and any other concerns should be reported to your supervisor … and we will forward them to the right departments," wrote Sodexho's director of housekeeping for Delta. ... |
|
Much better:
| Quote: | The New York Times Magazine
Magazine Subscription
The Green Issue
Biotech
By Robert Andrew Powell
April 20/08
| Quote: | Boulder Community Hospital in Colorado became the first LEED-certified green hospital in America in 2003. But it took a waste audit financed by the Environmental Protection Agency to uncover a problem no one at the hospital had really thought about. Twenty percent of all the waste in the hospital Dumpsters, the auditors determined, consisted of just one item: blue wrap, which was used to sterilize surgical equipment - and then thrown away after just one use.
Boulder Community's sterile-processing director requested $120,000 in hard containers for sterilization. used tools are tossed into the hard containers, the containers and the tools are sterilized together and then reused again and again. By eliminating blue wrap, and by keeping it out of the trash, the outlay for the hard containers was recouped in just a year and a half, and there's a fifth less trash in the waste stream ... Recycling confidential documents instead of shredding them has cut costs by $90,000 ... Switching to energy-efficient light bulbs has saved another $40,000. ... (-- p. 72) |
|
But if we're really stuck on composting - and we should be -
| Quote: | The New York Times Magazine
Magazine Subscription
The Green Issue
Compost Feast
By Tess Taylor
April 20/08
| Quote: | | ... In San Francisco's "Fantastic 3" system, residents sort their refuse into three bins: recyclables, food scraps (including meat) and trash. Food scraps and recyclable material are picked up free, but residents have to pay to have trash hauled away. These incentives have enabled San Francisco to divert 70 percent of the city's trash from landfills. The composting program - the largest in the U.S. - also curbs a lot of the city's emissions. When San Francisco researched its carbon footprint, it found that 20 percent of its emissions came from rot, specifically the methane produced by decomposing food waste. While it's possible to run a methane-recapture program at a landfill, up to two-thirds of the gas may still be lost. Composting is much more efficient: the methane is reabsorbed, and the city ends up with a viable product to sell to farms, golf courses and vineyards. Ten years later, 2,000 restaurants and most residents separate their garbage, and the sanitation workers of San Francisco get an additional reward of well-made foods. (-- p. 48) |
|
Canadian Geographic
Magazine Subscription
A River to Ruin
Why are Americans fighting so hard to protect
British Columbia's Flathead River
from a strip mine?
By Jeff Hull
June, 2008
| Quote: | The ecological value of the valley - its unparalleled carnivore populations and pristine water - "is too important to jeopardize with irresponsible energy development," says Max Baucus, Montana's senior senator. As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, he wields a great deal of influence on Capitol Hill. He says he's 100 per cent committed to stopping" industrial development in the Flathead. ...
"I don't know if we're going to seek tenure further down the road. Right now the referral process does not include the Flathead. Therefore our plans are to not include the Flathead," says BP (multinational energy producer, formerly British Petroleum) spokesperson Anita Perry. "It's up to the British Columbia government, not BP, to decide if the Flathead will every be developed, and today it's just not available."
BP's caginess points out why Baucus and others on both sides of the border feel that eventually, without comprehensive protection for the Flathead, an energy project will become the first in a series of destructive dominoes that would ravage the most ecologically rich, unprotected valley remaining along the Canada-U.S. border. Despite BP's withdrawal, other companies, including one eyeing a mine site within the Flathead River flood plain, appear poised to take advantage of the improved infrastructure that would accompany development of Cline's Lodgpole Mine project.
"We are hell-bent to get it done and are pushing the government to get it done," Cline's chief executive officer Ken Bates said recently in the online magazine Kootenaybiz.com. "I'm sorry they are taking so long."
Accordingly, Cline's proposal has ignited a cross-border shouting match and triggered a Canadian Environmental Assessment . Senator Baucus has implored Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ratchet the dispute to a higher level, and U.S. State Department officials confirm that they are, on some unspecified level, planning to engage their Canadian counterparts.
... Premier Gordon Campbell ... would like to recast the argument as one about global warming, piously claiming that climate change, not industrial development, is the biggest threat to the Flathead. But the premier's concern about climate change seems a bit obtuse given that open-pit mining of low-grade coal, which Cline plans to ship overseas to feed the largely unregulated industrial economies of China, India and Brazil, would ultimately generate even more greenhouse-gas emissions.
... faced with the B.C. government's two-zone mining policy - under which provincial lands either are already protected as parks or reserves or are open to mining - (Montana Governor Brian) Schweitzer, Baucus, ... American scientists and a dedicated cadre of Canadian conservationists believe that minding their own business would be tantamount to watching the ineluctible degradation of a unique ecological treasure. ...
... another mining proposal, on Sage Creek, threatened the valley in the 1970s. Canadian and American officials demanded - and won - a referral to the International Joint Commission (IJC), which adjudicates disputes about waters that cross the Canada-U.S. border. In 1988, the IJC Study Board, a collection of more than 50 scientists from both countries, unanimously concluded that no mines should be allowed in the Flathead until baseline scientific data were collected and both countries could agree on a "mutually acceptable use of resources." (View the results). The Sage Creek mine was never developed. (emphasis added)
... As far back as 1911, John George "Kootenai" Brown, the first superintendent of Waterton Lakes National Park, argued it "seems advisable to greatly expand this park" to protect adjacent "breeding grounds" in the Flathead. In the 1950s and 1960s, various government officials lobbied for park expansion into British Columbia. In 1995, when UNESCO awarded World Heritage Site status to Waterton -Glacier, the missing piece of pie - British Columbia's Flathead valley - was noted as problematic, too much core area was left unprotected, and expansion was recommended.
[In 2002, Prime Minister Jean Chretien tried but could not overcome the B.C. government's resistance to park expansion. ...
Paul Martin's Liberal government made a park feasibility study a condition for the transfer to provincial jurisdiction of other federally owned coal blocks underlying the Flathead. But in 2006, the (Conservative) government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly dropped the feasibility study from the deal. Without it, park expansion proposals are dead in the water. (-- pgs. 42-52) |
Canadian Geographic
Magazine Subscription
The lost Eden of Okanagan
Vineyards are replacing orchards, recreation is replacing ranching and retirees are replacing rattlesnakes in the arid ponderosa hills of the Okanagan Valley
July/August, 2008
| Quote: | ... The houses and condos will be bought up eagerly by a wealthy generation of human migrants from Alberta or Australia. They come to play in Canada's most perfect valley, towing wakboard boats, snowmobiles, quads. "Man must recreate," says Sarell resignedly.
Their televisions and air conditioners will require a bigger power line through this piece of snake habitat. Their blossoming yards, ensuite bathrooms and golf courses will demand more water from this semi-arid country. More fine restaurants, more landfille, more marina slips and muffler shops. (Biologist Mike) Sarell returns his catch to its rocky lair. He does not think the night snake's presence here is a 'showstopper,' consultancy parlance for a particular flora or fauna that can halt development. If an exceedingly rare desert night snake cannot do it, I ask Sarell, what would? He thinks about it for a moment before responding.
"Recession," he says. (emphasis added)...
"Water is going to be a problem," says (historical geographer Wayne) Wilson, as does anyone you meet in the valley. Nestled in a rain shadow of the Coast Mountains, the Okanagan dodges British Columbia's famous onslaught of maritime precipitation. The valley is replenished by rain or snow from higher in the watershed, the Okanagan Highlands of the Interior Plateau. However, much of the runoff is lost to evaporation in Canada's driest locale, where the Great Basin Desert biome extends it warm reach. What little surface water does arrive is 100 per cent managed. About 70 per cent is used for agriculture, which contributes almost one-quarter of the province's total agricultural output. Homeowners compete with wild plants and animals for the rest.
Newcomers mostly fail to understand how a valley blessed with so many lakes - including Okanagan Lake, more than 100 kilometres long and deep enough, at 230 metres, to hide a mythical monster called Ogopogo - could ever be short of water. However, the lake has an extremely low flushing rate of more than 52 years; only the top one metre or so is replenished annually. The whole valley is dry - much of it is semi-arid, and significant portions are true desert - which is not obvious in what seems like a watery place. Virtually all its smaller upland waters are dammed or diverted, which has contributed ot the decimation of Okanagan Lake's once plentiful Kokanee salmon. A 1994 study suggested that existing water in the valley could support a maximum population of 425,000 people, provided agriculture was scaled back significantly. (emphasis added)
... Once the section linking 'the Coke' to Kelowna was completed in 1991, the $1 billion toll highway across the Cascades effectively brought the Okanagan into Vancouver's backyard, reducing the trip to less than four hours. Transport upgrades continute today. The low-volume floating bridge across Okanagan Lake has been replaced with a soaring new one named for the Kelowna-born Bennett. Meanwhile, a runway upgrade at Kelowna's airport will soon accommodate the largest Airbus jumbos direct from Europe and Asia. (-- pgs. 44, 52-53) |
Yee-haw. ...
The New Yorker
Magazine Subscription
The Mail
How to Save the Forest
Nov. 17/08
| Quote: | In 1992, I entered Vladivostok, one of the first foreigners to do so legally in many decades, eager to explore what may be the most diverse temperate forest on earth. I left profoundly depressed by the prospect of its rapid destruction. However, there is an important distinction to be made, which Khatchadourian mentions: while forests in the developing world are rapidly disappearing, forests in the industrial world (with the exception of Canada) are expanding. (emphasis added) In much of Europe and North America, there is more forest today than at any time in the last half a millennium, although it is often less biodiverse than virgin forest. An essential part of the strategy to save the world’s forests must include encouraging forestry in affluent countries where guidelines are well established.
Lars Norgren
Manning, Ore. |
Link to this entry
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editor
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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Section closed for clear and present danger of avalanche - but not to B.C. 'BILLIES:
| Quote: | The Globe and Mail
Corporate Bilge Served up Daily
Man killed, another hurt in Whistler avalanche
By Wendy Stueck
Jan. 2/08
| Quote: | A 29-year-old male skier was killed at Whistler Blackcomb yesterday when he and a snowboarder entered a closed section of the mountain and triggered an avalanche that swept them over a cliff. The skier and the 21-year-old male snowboarder, who survived the fall with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, were riding in a permanently closed section of the resort known as Hanging Roll. As they rode along the area, near the West Bowl on Whistler Mountain, the two men dislodged a slab of snow, triggering an avalanche that swept them over a 45-metre cliff.
... "I've said it over and over again - I don't know why people don't believe or understand why the signs aren't for them," Doug Forseth, Whistler Blackcomb's senior vice-president of operations, said. To get to the area, the men would have had to crawl under wire cables and passed at least four signs, Mr. Forseth added. (emphasis added) |
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| Quote: | The Vancouver Sun
Charges could be laid after man perishes in avalanche
By Doug Ward
Jan. 3/08
| Quote: | RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair said people who enter permanently closed areas, or who enter areas closed for avalanche control can have their ski passes revoked and face criminal charges if their actions lead to injury or death of other skiers.
In this case, police are still investigating and could lay criminal charges against the survivor, LeClair said.
... At the moment, most areas of the province are rated a "serious" risk, meaning avalanches can be triggered by human activity, such as walking over a weak spot.
On Saturday, another out-of-bounds incident occurred on Grouse Mountain, when a father and son were trapped for more than six hours in a gully rated with a high avalanche probability. On Christmas Day, a 21-year-old Japanese skier was plucked from treacherous avalanche terrain on Whistler mountain in a risky helicopter rescue. He was found out of bounds, directly behind the top of Symphony Express chairlift in a steep, unpatrolled area littered with cliffs. |
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What does it cost us to rescue these silly 'BILLIES?
| Quote: | | In most areas there is no fee for rescue. (emphasis added) In the national parks you must have a valid entry pass to qualify for free rescue. You can obtain this on entry to the parks. In Assiniboine and other British Columbia parks you may be liable for the cost of rescue. In this case you need insurance to cover rescue. If in doubt consult us to check whether or not you will need this. (From Yamnuska Mountain Adventures) |
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http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1225#1225 |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:53 am Post subject: |
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Taking proper care of the construction site - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
| Quote: | cbc.ca/news/bc
Canada's public news source
(such as it has become)
Downtown Vancouver street reopened after storm cleanup
Jan. 15/08
| Quote: | Electricity has been restored to thousands of customers around Vancouver and a section of the city's downtown core reopened Tuesday morning after heavy winds damaged an office building.One block of West Georgia Street between Thurlow and Bute streets was closed to traffic Monday afternoon after a large piece of plate glass came loose from the 20th floor of the Terasen Gas building. Winds prevented workers from fixing the loose glass, so the 1100 block of West Georgia Street — a main east-west artery in the city — remained closed to car and pedestrian traffic until Tuesday morning when workers were able to remove it. Winds also whipped around debris from a nearby construction site, including sheets of plywood. Plywood from the Living Shangri-La hotel construction site, which is also on West Georgia, landed on a parked car Monday afternoon.
BC Hydro said electricity has been restored to most of the 15,000 customers around Metro Vancouver who lost it Monday after high winds and falling trees took down power lines.
Stanley Park was also closed after a tree fell across Park Drive, a move reminiscent of a windstorm in 2006 that caused major damage to the park. |
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| Quote: | | Note: Strangely, the report online does not indicate at the a.m. news broadcast did that Vancouver Chief Building Official might initiate an investigation of downtown construction sites such as Shangri-La to rule out breaches of various city bylaws governing site management. |
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http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1229#1229 |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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The real EcoDensity:
Urban planning (or lack thereof) - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
The Vancouver Sun
Real Estate Ad Flier
with occasional flights
into journalism
West-side school closures announced
By Janet Steffenhagen
Jan. 11/08
| Quote: | VANCOUVER - Debate is expected to start today over a plan for the city's west-side schools that could see the closure of one elementary school, the opening of another to serve burgeoning University of B.C. neighbourhoods and the relocation of a popular high school. The school targeted for closure is Queen Elizabeth annex, a small K-3 facility on Crown Street. The newly released plan would see the annex sold to help cover the cost of moving University Hill secondary into a leased UBC building and transforming its current site into an elementary school.
Despite protests from parents and school employees at a special board meeting Thursday night, trustees voted 6-3 to begin public consultations leading to a decision by March about whether to go ahead with the proposals. The changes are intended to create more classroom space where needed, allow seismic upgrades at Jules Quesnel, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and expand French-immersion and other choice programs. ... In fact, the west-side report is just the first phase of a district-wide review that began in 2005. Officials have not said when other phases will begin or what schools could be affected.
The board will start advertising its west-side plan today and public consultations at the affected schools are to commence next week.
The review was spurred by demographic changes that have left some schools overcrowded and others with hundreds of empty seats. Provincial rules prevent districts from opening new schools while there is unused capacity nearby. ... Vancouver is one of dozens of B.C. districts dealing with declining enrolments, but it has been slower than others to take action. Since a funding formula change six years ago made it uneconomic for districts to operate underpopulated schools, more than 130 schools around B.C. have closed. Vancouver has shut only one school in recent years -- Shannon Park annex in 2002. Recently, Garibaldi annex was also identified for possible closure, but the board delayed a decision until March to give the community time to come up with a rescue plan. Annexes are smaller than regular elementary schools and more expensive to operate.
Vancouver's public school enrolment fell to 53,271 last year -- down 4,304 students, or 7.5 per cent, from a peak enrolment in 1997. That's partly because of demographic changes and also because a growing number of students -- 16 per cent last year -- have opted for independent schools. As a result, the district is operating at 86-per-cent capacity, leaving 8,500 seats empty in schools and more than 3,000 in portables.
But around UBC, where more than 2,000 new residential units have recently been constructed and more are planned, schools are filled beyond capacity and turning students away. (emphasis added)
PROPOSED CHANGES TO WEST-SIDE SCHOOLS
The first phase of a facilities review recommends:
- Closure of Queen Elizabeth annex as of June 2009 and sale of the property.
- Relocation of University Hill secondary to a renovated and expanded building at UBC.
- Conversion of University Hill secondary into a new elementary school.
- Options for switching French immersion at Jules Quesnel with the English program at Queen Elizabeth.
- Seismic upgrades for Queen Mary, Jules Quesnel and Queen Elizabeth elementary. |
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1230#1230 |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:06 am Post subject: |
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Managing mental health - B.C. 'BILLY-style:
cbc.ca/news
Some mental health experts say a new report by the Vancouver Police Department highlights a staggering gap in services for mentally ill people.
Feb. 4/08
| Quote: | The leaked report by VPD Det. Fiona Wilson-Bates is to be released Monday morning. It says that police have become the "de facto" front-line mental health workers of the city.
During a 16-day period in September 2007, police tracked their response to emergency calls. They found that one-third of the calls involved people with serious mental health problems. More and more, police say they find themselves trying to get medical help or a place to stay for mentally ill people, and it's gobbling up millions of dollars in police time. (emphasis added)
The result is that money is being spent on crisis management, instead of long-term solutions, said Kerry Jang, a University of British Columbia psychiatry professor. "So, for example, a police officer answers a call for someone who has a psychotic break on the street and takes them straight to the emergency department,'' Jang said. "They are obligated to stay with that person until they are seen, so of course that could be [many] hours.''
Still, by producing the report, the police have added an important voice to those calling for better, more co-ordinated services for mentally ill people, said Julian Somers, Director of the B.C. Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction. |
Here is the list of recommendations beginning at p. 62:
| Quote: | What’s needed:
1) A mental health care facility that can accommodate moderate to long term stays for individuals who are chronically mentally ill. Of the 2,100 people that Vancouver Coastal Health Authority estimates are not adequately served in the Downtown Eastside, up to 500 are most at risk. These are people who are chronically mentally illwith disabling addictions, extreme behaviours, no permanent housing and regular police contact. This resource should be readily accessible and available for those who are both mentally ill and addicted.
2) What has been termed an “Urgent Response Center” by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, where individuals can be assessed and triaged according to their needs along with additional resources to support the facility. VPD members have contact with mentally ill people at an alarming rate (up to almost half of all contact calls in some areas of the city). This is an opportunity for people who are mentally ill to receive treatment. A facility does not currently exist that is readily accessible and available for police to take a mentally ill person in the absence of jail or hospital. This would be a location accessible to police that would provide mental health, addictions and housing support for individuals who came in contact with officers and for whom jail was not appropriate. This initiative is only recommended in conjunction with additional resources to support the facility (i.e. beds for a short term stay, addictions and mental health counsellors, access to a long term care facility, etc.).
3) Increased services for people who are dually diagnosed. It is estimated that up to 70% of all psychiatric admissions at St. Paul’s Hospital involve a person who has multiple addictions and that over 50% of people with a mental illness abuse illegal drugs and alcohol. These statistics indicate, particularly in the context of the Downtown Eastside, which is home to Canada’s largest open drug market, that treatment for concurrent disorders is essential. This includes mandating the existing mental health clinics to provide service to people who are mentally ill and drug addicted, regardless of which affliction is most prevalent. (emphasis added)
4) A continued increase in supportive housing in Vancouver. An estimated 70% of Vancouver’s inner city population who are either homeless or living in single room occupancy hotels have mental health issues and 23% have a diagnosed mental illness (City of Vancouver, 2007).
5) For St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital to speed up the admission process for police who have arrested an individual under the provisions of the Mental Health Act (by negating the need for the emergency physician to initially examine the patient, for example). One of the contributing factors to patrol members being less likely to arrest an individual under the provisions of the Mental Health Act is the lengthy time delay at both St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital in admitting a mentally ill individual.
6) Enhanced ability to gather data on all calls for service that are mental health related to facilitate further research on this matter and to establish benchmarks to track change for police in British Columbia. The VPD does not currently gather details about police calls for service that involve people who are mentally ill that is readily accessible for extraction and analysis via police computer.
7) A system, much like PRIME, that has readily accessible details of an individual’s mental health history and addresses privacy concerns, for British Columbia mental health service providers. Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is one of several regional health authorities in British Columbia. Internal information sharing practices are a barrier to mental health care within Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and this problem is greater when an individual crosses health authority boundaries. |
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1238#1238
Last edited by editor on Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 878
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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News coverage of righteous local outrage over unwanted, inaccessible, unaffordable, unsustainable, barrier-full, rigged-to-leak development - B.C. 'BILLY-style
A typical example:
| Quote: | The Hampton Journal
Earnest Community Bi-monthly Tab
Eco-Density Draws Fire from Neighbours
Local groups join dozens of others in city-wide
campaign against Sullivan initiative
Feb. 11/08
| Quote: | A group of four neighbourhood organizations in West Point Grey and Dunbar have joined two dozen similar organizations in Vancouver demanding the City back away from its so-called 'Eco-Density' initiative.
The local groups are the Dunbar Residents Association, North West Point Grey Homeowners' Association, Southwest Marine Drive Ratepayers Association, and the West Point Grey CityPlan Vision Community Liaison Group.
A long letter has gone to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and city council from the coalition of groups saying, "We adamantly emphasize that the proposed Eco-Density Charter and actions should be withdrawn because they will likely have unintended consequences that will result in the completely opposite effect of the original objective." ... The groups argue, "We feel that the EcoDensity Charter as it is now framed would be of no benefit to the community, and only would benefit the developers. We are also concerned about the inherent conflict of interest that arises when municipal campaigns and parties accept donations from developers. This should simply not be allowed." (-- p. 5) |
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This story is but one of a legion of community protests recorded in this edition, including a bid to save UBC Farm from becoming still more leaky condos, another to keep Queen Elizabeth Annex School open to cope with enrolment following rampant development of still more leaky condos on campus, still another to prevent Musqueam sharing the province-wide construction spoils by developing two land parcels in Pacific Spirit Regional Park and one more to preclude development of still more leaky condos at University Golf Course now ceded to the Musqueam beyond 75 years, the term to which Musqueam have magnanimously agreed.
So how come bigger media aren't running these stories, pointing fingers at the mysteriously-governed UEL and trumpeting such vocal community outrage?
Our question:
Link to this entry
http://bccondos.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1245#1245
Last edited by editor on Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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